FNB Closes Bank Accounts of Dodgy Lottery-Funded “Activist”

First National Bank has closed the bank accounts of Tebogo Sithathu.

First National Bank has closed the bank accounts of self-proclaimed activist Tebogo Sithathu, who is under investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) for a series of dodgy multimillion-rand grants.

The SIU investigation into the now-defunct Gospel Music Association of South Africa is focused on a series of grants for three different lottery-funded projects totalling R9.7-million, spread across the 2014/15, 2016/17 and 2019/20 financial years.

Sithathu, who heads up United Civil Society in Action (UCSA), has been at the forefront of attacks, both in Parliament and online, on the board and executive of the National Lotteries Commission (NLC). These attacks have included calls for Trade and Industry Minister Parks Tau to disband the board and dismiss its commissioner, Jodi Scholtz.

Sithathu was close to the previous executive and board of the NLC, several of whom have been implicated in the looting of the lottery on their watch.

Sithathu revealed FNB’s closure of his bank account when he commented on a Facebook comment by former finance minister Des van Rooyen, who was nicknamed “Weekend Special” after his appointment by former President Jacob Zuma lasted just one weekend.

Sithathu was commenting on a story about Van Rooyen’s push for banking reforms to stop “[the] weaponisation of reputational risk” by banks that cancelled accounts of controversial clients, as happened with the Gupta family and Iqbal Surve’s business empires.

Commenting earlier this week on Van Rooyen’s post, Sithathu wrote: “Go for it Comrade Des. These cowards used the same ‘weaponization’ methods and froze all my bank accounts. Talk about cheap bullying bullshit by SA banks.”

It is not clear if UCSA’s account was also held at FNB and, if so, whether it had also been closed.

In a letter sent to Sithathu on 4 November last year after he queried the reasons for shutting down his accounts, FNB stated: “As a commercial bank, we maintain relationships with customers in terms of the private law of contract. As part of this contractual relationship, we identify and monitor any risk that customers may pose to the bank and determine whether any of these risks justify the termination of a customer relationship.”

These risks “may arise for various reasons, such as the conduct and use of an account, adverse media reports, international sanctions, real or anticipated reputational damage to the bank,” FNB said in its letter, which GroundUp has seen.

“Having considered all aspects, we elected to terminate your banking relationship because, in our view, a continued relationship may expose the bank to reputational and business risk beyond what the bank is willing to accept in terms of its current risk appetite.”

FNB told Sithathu that he could complain to the Banking Ombudsman if he was unhappy with the bank’s response.

GroundUp reported in 2021 how Sithathu threatened a Limpopo Mirror journalist in an attempt to stop him from investigating a dodgy R10-million grant involving an ANC councillor.

UCSA also applied for an urgent court interdict in June 2020 to stop GroundUp from publishing details of Lottery grants made to non-profit organisations. But the matter was withdrawn and UCSA agreed to pay GroundUp’s legal costs. It has never done so.

Sithathu had not responded to questions sent to him via WhatsApp about the closure of his accounts at the time of publication.

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